Common Share Food Co-op Listening Project

Background

Common Share Food Coop is part of a broad movement of cooperation, everyday people from all walks of life, class backgrounds, racial and ethnic histories. Food co-ops are one of the most common because food is so essential to surviving and thriving.

Our Food Co-op started out following the path of many successful co-ops, learning from experts in food co-ops. We’re growing our membership, which is now about 465 cooperator households, more than half-way to our goal of 800 by the Spring of 2019, and well on our way to begin the serious business of building a grocery store.

This summer, we have started to look closely at who we are on the Board, and who we are as member-owners of this enterprise. Many of us were food justice advocates before we joined the co-op; and when we started to examine ourselves — our vision of a grocery store that helps to advocate for economic justice and food justice, and that welcomes all the communities of Amherst and includes all communities in its creation — we saw that there are a lot more people in Amherst who are not yet member-owners. And there are a lot of groups of people, communities, that are not yet represented, and not at the table making decisions about how the vision of this store and community space will unfold.

We realized that we could not just keep running down the track of business-as-usual, making our pitch in the way we’ve been doing for 5-6 years. We realized that we need to go out to those communities that are not at the table, and listen.

Why are we listening? We need to hear about people’s experience with food; what they about food; and what they and their families need to make sure they have delicious, healthy food.

Mission

Owned by workers and consumers, the Co-op is a grocery store that draws together the diverse communities of the Amherst area in an inclusive space supporting food justice and local resilience.

Vision

To achieve our mission, we will:

build a joyful, welcoming, accessible space that is inviting to all communities

honor and expand diverse cultures of delicious and healthy food

gather workers, local producers, and consumers together to create a thriving, resilient food system

Hello, I am a member 0461 I was reading through this page and noticed and error — In the sentence before the yellow box with the mission statement, where it says “Why are we listening? We need to hear about people’s experience with food; what they about food; and what they and their families need to make sure they have delicious, healthy food.” Notice it says after the semicolon “what they about food;” There is a word missing is it “know?” “feel?” etc…